Flopping K-Drama’s Cast Gets Flamed For Exorbitant Appearance Fee

Despite starring multiple A-listers such as Ma Dong Seok, Park Hyung Sik, and Seo In Guk, KBS2′s fantasy action drama Twelve recorded a disappointing viewership. The show concluded with a dismal 2.4% rating nationwide, falling from the promising 8.1% point it started.

This shocking performance has put the K-Drama under intense scrutiny, and some critics believe that the show suffered significantly due to the sky-high appearance fee charged by some of its cast members. In particular, a recent report revealed that actor Ma Dong Seok received ₩500 million KRW (about $361,000 USD) per episode for Twelve. Having filmed eight episodes in total, his total fee added up to a staggering ₩40.0 billion KRW (about $28.9 million USD).

Park Hyung Sik received the second-highest amount, ₩400 million KRW (about $289,000 USD) per episode, totaling ₩32.0 billion KRW (about $23.1 million USD).

However, other actors on the show, including Seo In Guk, Kang Mina, and Lee Joo Bin, received significantly lower fees. According to reports, the appearance fees of the other nine cast members, apart from Ma and Park, didn’t even add up to ₩1.00 billion KRW (about $722,000 USD).

According to the report, about 34% of the total production budget went to pay Ma Dong Seok and Park Hyung Sik. An industry insider was quoted as saying that the quality of the show’s latter half appeared to have suffered heavily due to cost-cutting in post-production, which probably became necessary due to the two actors’ high appearance fees.

The revelation of the two actors’ appearance fee has sparked some strong reactions from netizens.

• “Their fees are excessively inflated.”
• “Wow, why are actor fees going up like this? 400–500 million won is just absurd.”
• “Even in the comments here, a lot of people are saying things like ‘this actor deserves it, that one doesn’t have the level for it.’ That itself is, I think, one of the reasons behind the competition over actors’ fees…”
• “I don’t really get Ma Dong Seok either, but Park Hyung Sik?… I’m speechless.”
• “But why hire them… If you don’t have the money, just don’t.”